Automatic entrance having sliding door



NOV. 28, 1967 D M ET AL 3,354,581 7 AUTOMATIC ENTRANCE HAVING SLIDING DOOR 5 Sheets$heet 1 Original Filed Oct. 15, 1965 ZZZ ROBERT E.D|MMITT CHARLES KESSNER INVENTORS AT TORNE YS Nov. 28, 1967 D|MM|TT ET AL AUTOMATIC ENTRANCE HAVING SLIDING 000R 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Oct. 15, 1965 FIG w ROBERT E.

ATTORNEYS NOV. 28, 1967 D M ET AL 3,354,581

AUTOMATIC ENTRANCE HAVING SLIDING DOOR Original Filed Oct. 15, 1965 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 ROBERT E. DIMM ITT CHARLES KESSNER INVENTORS AT TORNEYS United States Patent 3,354,581 AUTOMATEC ENTRANCE HAVING SLIDING 1100B Robert E. Dimmitt and Charles Kessner, Seattle, Wash,

assignors to Der-West, Inc., Seattle, Wash, a corporation of Washington Continuation of application Ser. No. 505,110, Oct. 15, 1965. This application Jan. 9, 1967, Ser. No. 617,746

Claims. (Cl. 49-441) This invention relates to an automatic entrance of the type having a slide door for closing the entrance opening and wherein such slide-mounted door also admits of being swung manually from a closed to an open position in the event of a panic condition or a power failure. The present application is a continuation of pending application filed Oct. 15, 1965, Ser. No. 505,110, and now abandoned.

To accommodate the door to its slide-and-swing motions, an overhead track is provided extending transversely of the door opening. A carriage rides on the track and has a door frame rigidly secured thereto, the door frame having an inverted-L configuration to provide a horizontal rail at the top with a vertical piece depending from that end of the rail which lies proximal to a side pocket into and from which the carriage slides as the door opens and closes. The door proper is hinged to the frame for swing movement about a vertical axis lying proximal to and paralleling the frames vertical piece, and normally underlies and is coplanar with the horizontal rail.

One object of the invention is to provide between the rail and the door a tongue-and-groove interfit which serves to sustain the door from the rail so as to relieve the hinge pins of the weight of the door when the door is in said normal coplanar relation to the frame, and further characterized in that said tongue-and-groove extends the full length of the door and thus performs the function of a weather seal along the top edge of the door.

The automatic entrance of our above-identified parent patent is one in which the swing movement to which the door admits is in an outward direction only. This meets building and fire codes which require that an automatic entrance serve as an emergency exit is case of a power failure, but it has the disadvantage of requiring that the door be left in an open condition if access is to be permitted into as well as out of a building in the event of a power failure. Retail establishments are desirous of continuing to conduct business even though power is off but an open door is objectionable when bad weather prevails. It is a particular object of the present invention to provide an automatic entrance which permits the door to be swung inwardly as well as outwardly.

Ancillary to the above, the invention aims to provide an automatic entrance having releasable lock means normally precluding inward swinging motion so that the swing to which the door ordinarily admits produces only an emergency exit.

A further important object of the invention is to provide an automatic entrance having its parts so constructed and arranged that pressure exerted upon the inside face of the door after the door has commenced to slide open, say by reason of a person or persons being panicked by an earthquake, fire or the like, will not cause the door to become jammed and preclude a continuation of its opening movement.

The above and still additional objects and advantages in view, looking to the perfection of an automatic entrance of the described character, will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims, the invention consisting in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a somewhat schematic fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view showing an automatic entrance constructed to embody preferred teachings of the present invention.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are schematic fragmentary perspective views respectively representing the components of the frame-and-door assembly in the positions occupied when the door slides, when the door swings outwardly, and when the door swings inwardly.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view drawn to an enlarged scale on line 55 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view on the jogged section line 66 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view on line 77 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view drawn to the enlarged scale of FIGS. 5 through 7 on line 8-8 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 9 is a transverse vertical sectional view on line 9-9 of FIG. 1, likewise using said enlarged scale.

Referring to said drawings, the entrance opening to which the present door structure is applied lies in an established trafiic zone between inner and outer passageways. A person approaching the opening along such passageways traverses electric carpets 10 and 11, respectively, and upon said traversal closes a normally open electric circuit the energizing of which acts through air cylinders 12 to open the doorway. The door of the present invention normally occupies such doorway and in its sliding motion moves therefrom into and from a wall pocket 13 which lies to one side of the doorway. The door returns to its closed position when the carpets are freed of the persons weight. A control and power system for this purpose of the type which we prefer to employ is illustrated and described in pending application to Pneumatic Door Operator, Ser. No. 330,883, filed Dec. 16, 1963, now Patent No. 3,232,600 granted Feb. 1, 1966, and is no part of the present invention. It will be understood that the doorway may be closed either by a single door, as here illustrated, or by two in-line doors each having a width approximating one-half the width of the entrance opening, in which event a respective wall pocket is provided at each of the two sides of the doorway. Two doors perforce work oppositely in concert.

The doorway and the wall pocket are each prolonged upwardly to produce a head recess 14. An overhead track 15 is supported in such recess to occupy a position on the longitudinal median line and extends substantially the full length thereof. Wheels 16 for a carriage 17 ride on the track. Non-rise rollers 18 complement the carriage wheels. The door of the present invention, or more properly a frame to which the door is hinged, is suspended from the carriage.

The frame has an inverted-L configuration, providing a horizontal header 19 which underlies and is bolted or otherwise rigidly secured to the carriage and a vertical leg 20 which depends from the inner end of the header, or which is to say the end thereof which first enters the wall pocket. The vertical leg has a length only moderately less than the height of the doorway and at its lower end presents a short outwardly directed toe 21 lying in the same longitudinally vertical plane as the header. Co-axial hinge pins 22 and 23, respectively, rise from the toe and depend from the header in proximal paralleling relation to the leg 20, each being rigid with the frame and serving as center pivots for the door. Said leg has brackets 24 bolted to the back face adjacent upper and lower ends thereof. Each bracket has a pair of rollers, as 25-25 and 2626, journaled thereon for rotation about vertical axes with one roller of each pair bearing against one and the other roller of each pair bearing against the other of two paralleling side walls of the wall pocket 13..

The door has two components, a door proper 27 and a narrow break-away section 28 which extends along the upper edge of the door section. The hinge pin 22 is sufliciently long to project through and well below the break-away section so that both door components receive a center pivot therefrom. A lock, hereinafter described, releasably secures the outer ends of the door components so that. the two normally swing as one. The upper edge of the doors break-away section interfits with the header 19 of the inverted-L mounting frame by a tongue-and-groove connection. This tongue-and-groove extends the full length of the two parts and thus produces a weather-seal. Considered in relation to the pattern of the traffic which moves in and out through the doorway, the groove faces inwardly in the instance of the break-away section 28 and outwardly in the instance of the header 19, and in each instance the grooves outer wall, as 30 and 31, forms the mating tongue for the other groove. The fore-and-aft reach of the tongues is slightly less than the depth of the grooves so that, when interfitted, a coplanar relationship can be obtained. A bullet catch normally localizes the header and the breakaway section in this coplanar relationship, the ball component 32 being carried by the break-away section and lodging in a registering hole piercing the tongue 31 of the header. The ball, which is urged upwardly by a moderately strong spring 33, has a diameter such that the tongue 31, upon entering the groove of the breakaway section 28, will strike the ball above the center of the latter, thus to insure a deflection of the ball.

When the tongues and grooves are interfitted the tongue 30 rests upon the tongue 31 so as to be supported thereby. The carriage thus directly supports the break-away section of the door when the break-away section occupiesits normal position coplanar with the header. In a manner which will hereinafter appear, the releasable lock between the breakaway section and the door proper performs a hanger function with respect to the door so that, when the mounting frame and the door components are in their normal coplanar relationship, the door assembly (frame, break-away section, and door proper) is in effect sustained directly from the carriage and thus the hinge pins are called upon to carry the weight of the door only when the door is being swung.

Proceeding now to describe said lock, the break-away component of the door has a hollow box-section body part which lies between the tongue 31 of the header and the upper edge of the door proper. The lock mechanism is housed within the hollow center of this body part adjacent the outer end and comprises a quadrant-shaped bolt 35 journaled-mounted for swing movement about a trans-' verse horizontal axis into either an upper position whereat the break-away section is locked to the header, or a lower position whereat the break-away section is locked to the door proper. Side edges of the bolt fit registering slots 36-37 when swung into said upper position, and fit registering slots 38-39 when swung into said lower position. A load-sustaining toe-catch 40- is provided by the locking bolt to hook under the top wall 41 of the doors upper rail when the bolt is in such lower position. The side edges of the two sets of slots each have a slight taper (see FIG. 7) to facilitate entrance of the bolt.

Trunnion pins 42 carry the bolt, and fit in saddlenotched seats 43. Caps for the seats are denoted by 45. The bolt is offset to one side of center as an accommodation to a worm-wheel 46 which is fixed to one of the trunnion pins, and meshing the worm-wheel is a worm 47 fixed to a drive spindle 48. The drive spindle is journaled by the base and cap components of a pair of bearing blocks 50 for rotation about a longitudinal horizontal axis and has its outer end 51 slotted or otherwise so formed that the same may be turned by a brace or other suitable hand-driven instrument. A strip 52 of felting or other like or suitable material extends the full length of the break-away section to weather-seal a clearance gap which is provided between the lower edge of such' section and the upper edge of the door proper.

A removable closure 53 is provided at the outer end of the doors break-away section for installation of the described lock mechanism. While it appears from the drawings that the base components of the several bearing blocks are made integral with the walls of the breakaway section, this is only for clarity of illustration. The break-away section desirably is fabricated from an extrusion and has said base components welded or otherwise rigidly secured in place. The door proper and the mount frame likewise desirably are fabricated from extrusions.

The door of the present invention is equipped with a two-way centering spring 54 (see FIG. 1) carried by the vertical leg of the mounting frame in a suitable socket provide therefor and acting upon the back stile of the door. When the break-away section is locked to the header of the mounting frame, so that the door proper is free to swing in both directions in a situation where electric power has been disrupted, the spring 54 yieldingly returns the door to a closed position when swung either inwardly or outwardly.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of our now-preferred illustrated embodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly our intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What we claim is:

1. In an automatic entrance, an overhead horizontal track extending transversely of the entrance opening, a transverse frame formed generally to an inverted-L configuration to provide a horizontal bar at the top and a vertical bar rigidly fixed to the horizontal bar and depending from one end of the latter, a carriage riding on the track and having the horizontal bar of the frame suspended therefrom so that said horizontal bar underlies the track and the frame slides into and out of the entrance opening as the carriage moves reciprocally along the track between two prescribed limits of travel, a door for the entrance opening hinged at its upper and lower ends to the frame for swing movement about an axis which is fixedly related to the frame adjacent to and approximately parallel with the vertical bar of the frame into and out of a normal position coplanar with the frame between said normal position and open positions placing the door at approximate right angles thereto extending either outwardly or inwardly, selectively, from the hinge axis, the act of a person pressing outwardly against the door in a circumstance such as a panic condition and performed when the door occupies the entrance opening supplying such force as is necessary to swing the door into said outwardly extending open position, power means having operative interconnection with the frame operated automatically by the act of a person entering and leaving an established traffic zone including said entrance opening for respectively sliding the frame and door out of and into a position closing said opening, a stop means for the door, and manually controlled means for making said stop means active or inactive at will, said stop means being characterized in that, when made active and the door is occupying the entrance opening, the door is free to be swung by said panic-conditioned manual force into its outwardly extending open position but is precluded from being swung into the inwardly extending open position and, when made inactive and the door is occupying the entrance opening, the door can then be swung into the inwardly extending open position.

2. An automatic entrance according to claim 1 in which the door, to provide the stop means, is comprised of a door proper and a strip overlying the door proper and pivotally mounted for break-away swing movement independently of the door proper about a hinge axis coinciding with the hinge axis of the door proper, the door and the frames said horizontal bar which overlies the door as a header therefor each providing a respective one of two facing horizontal grooves extending substantially the full length of the door and so ofiset vertically one groove in relation to the other groove that the same automatically establish a mating tongue-and-groove interfit when the door swings from its said outwardly extending open position into said normal closed position co planar with the frame, the tongue-and-groove interfit producing a weather-seal and also stopping the door from swinging inwardly beyond a position coplanar with the frame when the break-away strip is held in coplanar relation to the door proper, the manually controlled means for making said stop means active or inactive including a releasable means for holding the break-away strip and the door in said coplanar relation.

3. An automatic entrance according to claim 2 in which the releasable hold means is functional to either the door proper or the header so that the break-away strip may be releasably held coplanar with the door or coplanar with the header, selectively.

4. An automatic entrance according to claim 2 in which the releasable hold means is functional to either the door proper or the header so that the break-away strip may be releasably held coplanar with the door proper or coplanar with the header, selectively, and having a means independent of said releasable means and releasable by the act of a person pressing outwardly upon the door proper for normally holding the break-away strip in coplanar relation to the header during periods when the hold means is connecting the break-away strip to the door proper.

5. An automatic entrance according to claim 2 in which the pivot mounting for the break-away strip is comprised of a vertical pivot pin and serves also as a pivot mounting for the door proper.

6. Automatic entrance according to claim 2 in which the break-away strip is hollow and houses the releasable hold means, said hold means comprising: a quadrant bolt carried by trunnion pins for reciprocal swing motion about a transverse horizontal axis, a worm wheel fixed to one of the trunnion pins, and a worm meshing the worm wheel, means being provided accessible from the outer end of the break-away strip for manually turning the worm.

7. Structure according to claim 2 having a weather-seal between the break-away strip and the door proper.

8. In an automatic entrance, an overhead horizontal track extending transversely of the entrance opening, a carriage riding on the track, a transverse frame suspended from the carriage and providing a horizontal header occupying a longitudinal vertical plane paralleling the vertical plane occupied by the track, said frame sliding into and out of the entrance opening as the carriage moves reciprocally along the track between two prescribed limits of travel, a door for the entrance opening hinged to the frame for swing movement between an emergency open position and a normal closed position coplanar with the frame, the hinge axis being vertical and fixedly related to the frame in a position proximal to that end of the latter which is the leading end as the frame and door slide out of the entrance opening, the door comprising a door proper with a strip overlying the door proper in coplanar relation thereto, said lower and upper components of the door, and namely the door proper and the strip, being arranged and adapted to be swung the lower component either independently of the upper component while the upper component remains coplanar with the header or the lower component in concert with the upper component while the two components remain coplanar one with the other, the axis about which the lower component swings independently, of the upper component coinciding with the axis about which the two components swing in concert.

9. Structure according to claim 8 in which a means is provided normally holding the door in said coplanar relation to the header and releasable by the act of a person pressing outwardly upon the door.

10. An automatic entrance according to claim 9 having lock means releasable by hand manipulation normally holding said two components coplanar one with the other.

11. Structure according to claim 8 having a weatherseal between said upper and lower components.

12. Structure according to claim 8 having a means to hold said upper component coplanar with the header when the lower component is swung independently of the upper component.

13. An automatic entrance as claimed in claim 1 in which the bottom edge of the horizontal bar and the upper edge of the door are spaced apart and maintained parallel at all times when the frame and the door are in said normal coplanar relation, and means operatively associated with the two said edges acting to weather-seal the space between the same during said periods when the door is coplanar with the frame.

14. In an automatic entrance, an overhead horizontal track extending transversely of the entrance opening, a traverse frame formed to provide a horizontal bar, a carriage riding on the track and having said horizontal bar suspended therefrom so that said horizontal bar underlies the track and the frame slides into and out of the entrance opening as the carriage moves reciprocally along the track between two prescribed limits of travel, a door for the entrance opening hinged to the frame for swing movement about an axis which is fixedly related to the frame and lies normal to said horizontal bar proximal to the end thereof which leads when the frame slides out of the entrance opening, the swing movement being into and out of a normal position coplanar with the frame between said normal position and open positions placing the door at approximate right angles thereto extending either outwardly or inwardly, selectively, from the hinge axis, and power means having operative interconnection with the frame operated automatically by the act of a person entering and leaving an established trafiic zone including said entrance opening for respectively sliding the frame and door out of and into a position closing said opening, the door being comprised of a door proper and a strip overlying the door proper and pivotally mounted for break-away swing movement independently of the door proper about a hinge axis coinciding with the hinge axis of the door proper, the door and said horizontal bar each providing a respective one of two facing horizontal grooves extending substantially the full length of the door and so oifset vertically one groove in relation to the other groove that the same automatically establish a mating tongue-and-groove interfit when the door swings from its said outwardly extending open position into said nonnal closed position coplanar with the frame.

15. An automatic entrance as claimed in claim 14 having a weather-sealing means between the door proper and the break-away strip.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,565,383 8/1951 Linebaugh 49177 3,136,538 6/1964 Dimmitt et al. 49177 3,188,699 6/1965 Walters 49-177 X 3,300,897 1/1967 Wikkerink 49177 X KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN AN AUTOMATIC ENTRANCE, AN OVERHEAD HORIZONTAL TRACK EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF THE ENTRANCE OPENING, A TRANSVERSE FRAME FORMED GENERALLY TO AN INVERTED-L CONFIGURATION TO PROVIDE A HORIZONTAL BAR AT THE TOP AND A VERTICAL BAR RIGIDLY FIXED TO THE HORIZONTAL BAR AND DEPENDING FROM ONE END OF THE LATTER, A CARRIAGE RIDING ON THE TRACK AND HAVING THE HORIZONTAL BAR OF THE FRAME SUSPENDED THEREFROM SO THAT SAID HORIZONTAL BAR UNDERLIES THE TRACK AND THE FRAME SLIDES INTO AND OUT OF THE ENTRANCE OPENING AS THE CARRIAGE MOVES RECIPROCALLY ALONG THE TRACK BETWEEN TWO PRESCRIBED LIMITS OF TRAVEL, A DOOR FOR THE ENTRANCE OPENING HINGED AT ITS UPPER AND LOWER ENDS OF THE FRAME FOR SWING MOVEMENT ABOUT AN AXIS WHICH IS FIXEDLY RELATED TO THE FRAME ADJACENT TO AND APPROXIMATELY PARALLEL WITH THE VERTICAL BAR OF THE FRAME INTO AND OUT OF A NORMAL POSITION COPLANAR WITH THE FRAME BETWEEN SAID NORMAL POSITION AND OPEN POSITIONS PLACING THE DOOR AT APPROXIMATE RIGHT ANGLES THERETO EXTENDING EITHER OUTWARDLY OR INWARDLY, SELECTIVELY, FROM THE HINGE AXIS, THE ACT OF A PERSON PRESSING OUTWARDLY AGAINST THE DOOR IN A CIRCUMSTANCE SUCH AS A PANIC CONDITION AND PERFORMED WHEN THE DOOR OCCUPIES THE ENTRANCE OPENING SUPPLYING SUCH FORCE AS IS NECESSARY TO SWING THE DOOR INTO SAID OUTWARDLY EXTENDING OPEN POSITION, POWER MEANS HAVING OPERATIVE INTERCONNECTION WITH THE FRAME OPERATED AUTOMATICALLY BY THE ACT OF A PERSON ENTERING AND LEAVING AN ESTABLISHED TRAFFIC ZONE INCLUDING SAID ENTRANCE OPENING FOR RESPECTIVELY SLIDING THE FRAME AND DOOR OUT OF AND INTO A POSITION CLOSING SAID OPENING, A STOP MEANS FOR THE DOOR, AND MANUALLY CONTROLLED MEANS FOR MAKING SAID STOP MEANS ACTIVE OR INACTIVE AT WILL, SAID STOP MEANS BEING CHARACTERIZED IN THAT, WHEN MADE ACTIVE AND THE DOOR IS OCCUPYING THE ENTRANCE OPENING, THE DOOR IS FREE TO BE SWUNG BY SAID PANIC-CONDITIONED MANUAL FORCE INTO ITS OUTWARDLY EXTENDING OPEN POSITION BUT IS PRECLUDED FROM BEING SWUNG INTO THE INWARDLY EXTENDING OPEN POSITION AND, WHEN MADE INACTIVE AND THE DOOR IS OCCUPYING THE ENTRANCE OPENING, THE DOOR CAN THEN BE SWUNG INTO THE INWARDLY EXTENDING OPEN POSITION. 